U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor denied (Oct. 28, 2022) the U.S Department of Justice’s motion seeking to severely limit North Dakota’s lawsuit against the United States for recovering the State’s extensive damages relating to protests the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2017 and 2018.
Judge Traynor held that “The (Corps’) failure to follow the permitting procedure opened the gates to North Dakota being damaged by the United States, its agencies, and third parties. The (Corps) created a liability mess. It let protestors and other hapless federal agencies exacerbate the damages and then left North Dakota to clean it up.”
“I am very pleased to see the Court agree with North Dakota that the United States can be held responsible for the multi-million-dollar disaster it created or encouraged,” said Attorney General Drew Wrigley.
Wrigley is continuing North Dakota’s lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act, looking to recover $38 million in damages to State property and emergency law enforcement costs because of the Corps’ actions that enabled the massive protests over the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.“ As North Dakota’s chief law enforcement officer, I intend to see this action through because it is so consequential for the State of North Dakota and its citizens.”
Judge Traynor decided that “The (Corps’) failure to follow the permitting procedures permits North Dakota to seek damages from the resulting tortious conduct—the gigantic federally created mayhem” when it invited and enabled the protests that went beyond peaceful protests and included violent criminal activities that endangered the public (including protesters) and the environment. Wrigley said, “ Having negligently created the problem, the United States then left it to North Dakota to spend tens of millions of dollars protecting public safety and cleaning up the dangerous mess left behind.”
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